Activities

Today was day #2 of my spur of the moment decision to join one of my instagram buds in a 30 Day Get Fit Challenge. 

It. Has. Been. Rough.

haha Buuuut, I guess "getting fit" shouldn't be easy, right?

I will say, though, that trying to "get fit" when you have a fussy 4 month old who got shots today and you babysit your VERY active niece and nephew for a few hours is not the best plan. I basically felt like every move I made was going to make my legs fall off my body! Squats and lunges make your legs BURN the next day! Which, in turn, makes it hard to chase kids around and standing-bounce your sad little baby after her doctor's appointment. 

I'm hoping it gets better. haha

For my own record, I'm going to list out each day's challenge activities. If you'd like to join in, feel free!

Day #1:

30 jumping jacks

30 crunches

10 sit ups

1 minute wall sit

10 lunges, each leg

47 squats

10 push-ups

25 knee highs

30 butt kicks

Day #2: (BY FAR an easier workout than day one... go figure)

10 jumping jacks

10 deep lunges, each leg

45 squats

20 sit ups

15 crunches

2 mile speed walk (*I substituted with a 30 minute walk around my neighborhood pushing Aurora in the stroller)

In addition to getting my body fit, I've decided to do a little work on strengthening my testimony and knowledge of the gospel. I take 20 minutes a day to myself (usually when Aurora is napping and Dan is working) to study The Book of Mormon and utilize the Preach My Gospel manual and then I read a little bit about the teachings of the prophet, Joseph Smith, in the Teachings of Presidents of the Church book. How awesome it has been to be reminded of the principles of the restoration of the gospel on this earth and to learn things and see things that I may have overlooked in the past. I'm glad we have prophets on the earth today to lead us and guide us in what the Lord would have us do. It's definitely uplifting to be reminded of the basic things of the gospel.

In other news, my sweet Dan did a little clean up on the fallen trees outside our house today. He cut down two huge trees and then trimmed up a few others AND cleared the rest of the ones that fell in the way of the driveway (ours and the neighbor's). Luckily, Jeremy was off work to help him because at one point they had to attach a rope to the car and to the tree so that they could use the car to make sure the huge tree fell the way they wanted. Yeah. I usually just watch and keep my fingers crossed that Dan doesn't have anything horrid happen to him. He loves running the chainsaw, though! Boys! haha

While they did that, Kaela and I took the kids on a walk around the neighborhood. It was crazy to see how many trees were down. The city is in need of a major spring cleaning! 

Oh! Guess what?? Guess what?? The doctor said that my baby is ready to add RICE CEREAL to her diet! And then in a few weeks we can add orange veggies!! I was excited but at the same time I'm over here thinking, "Where did the time go? My baby is getting so big!" I'm glad Dan was off work today because we both got a chance to try feeding the cereal to her. She seemed to like it, but at first her face was hilarious! It was like, "What is this stuff?" haha We'll keep trying.

Tonight we watched The Walking Dead and I snapped a few pictures of my unsuspecting hubby. Isn't he good looking? Yup. I kinda like him. Oh, and my beautiful napper! I like her, too! ♥♥♥

So I can be done...

Here's days 18-30. That's right. haha

Day 18- plans/dreams/goals you have:
plans: all my plans now include the word 'wedding'
dreams: to have a wonderful life with the people I love (so far, this dream is coming true)
goals: for this week? 1. turn in transcripts and picture so I can sign up for classes, 2. get laundry done, 3. get a photographer, 4. don't stress, 5. get Dan's birthday present ready, 6. homework done

Day 19- nicknames you have and why you have them
Liz: shorter version of my name
Lizard: my cousins started this one and then added...
Lizard's Breath: they called me this because my name is Elizabeth
Broccoli: sounds similar to my last name
Barclay: this is my last name (original huh? haha)
Lizzie: mostly my family calls me this

Day 20 and 21- someone you love and a picture of something that makes you happy
Daniel Kade Johnson. He makes me so happy and words cannot begin to describe how incredibly in love with this boy I am :)

Day 22- what makes you different from everyone else
well, a lot of things. haha duh.

Day 23- something you crave for a lot
angel hair alfredo spinach pasta
yoplait peach yogurt
kissing Dan (haha)
cheesecake
cupcakes/muffins
a good book to read
naps
costa vida

Day 24- your last five facebook status'
Liz Barclay is FREEEEEEZING! ugh
Liz Barclay Winter :(
Liz Barclay I want the moon and the stars I want the whole nine yards
Liz Barclay New shoes! :) AND I'm wearing socks! Shocker!
Liz Barclay is future Mrs. Johnson! Woo hoo! :)

Day 25- what I would find in your bag
2 pens
1 pencil
lady stuff
chapstick
my wallet

Day 26- What do you think about your friends
This is easy. I love my friends. They've gotten me through a lot and they've definitely made my life a lot more lively and fun! I would consider any of them a part of my family. I think they are wonderful!

Day 27- Why are you doing this 30 day challenge
Well, I thought it would be fun to do but now I'll admit that I'm getting slightly bored with it. Hence, why I am doing days 12 days at once haha

Day 28- A picture of you from last year and now. How have you changed since then?
20092010The most changed thing seems to be my hair. The color is never the same haha

Day 29- In this past month, what have you learned
I've learned so much this past month. I honestly learn something new everyday in almost every aspect of my life. I've learned things about school, about work, about my family, about my friends, and about my relationship with Dan. It's amazing

Day 30- your favorite song
right now my favorite song is probably Teenage Dream by Katy Perry. haha I know what you are all thinking but every time I'm in the car with Dan, that song comes on so we sing to it and laugh together.

Phew, it's over! haha no more 30 day posts.

On that note, I'll just say that Dan's family was down this weekend for Jack's baby blessing and it was so fun to see all of them. I love them all more and more every time I see them!

Also, I watched part of Harry Potter 5 tonight and boy did it make me want to go see 7 WAY bad!! BUT...I will wait until the rush over it is done and then, and THEN I will go see it and I will be so excited! haha I'm a nerd.

Day 17- Someone you would want to switch lives with for one day and why

Well, that's easy! I'd LOVE to switch lives with my 10 year old sister, Erin, for one day. 10 year olds have it easy, I tell you! I'd go to her 5th grade class and then come play outside with all my neighbor friends until my mom called me in for dinner. Then I would tease my older sisters and go to bed. Life would be great for that day :)

Day 16- another picture of yourself

Well, yes, I'm the one holding the gun haha

Oh, old pictures are so fun! haha They remind me of all the good times I've had. I love pictures.

Also, today was the first snow of the season! Snow is cold...but pretty haha so I deal with it.

Oh! And as a side note, I get my hair done tomorrow. SO EXCITED!!! I honestly have what I like to call "candy-corn hair" (brown roots, blonde stripe, reddish brown for the rest)... Yeah...

Day 15- Put your ipod on shuffle: first 10 songs that play

1. No Surprise - Daughtry
2. Bacon 'n Eggs - Priscilla Renea
3. Heaven Can Wait - We The Kings
4. Memory - Sugarcult
5. Teenage Dream - Katy Perry
6. The Man Who Can't Be Moved - The Script
7. Animal - Neon Trees
8. Things That Matter - Rascal Flatts
9. Everything You Ever Wanted - Hawk Nelson
10. Something 'Bout Love - David Archuleta


AND we are pretty much finished with our furniture painting project! Natalie came over the other day and helped us to sand them before we painted. Then Dan and I painted the first coat the other day. And Jeremy came over this morning and helped Dan finish painting while I was at work. They look so good. So, here are some before and after pictures:

Before

After

I LOVE THEM!!

Days 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14

Day 10- Songs you listen to when you are happy, sad, bored, hyped, mad

SKIP!!

That's right, I skipped day 10. I have WAY too many songs to look up or think of right now

Day 11- Another picture of you and your friends

Trunk-or-Treat 2008...One of the best nights haha
Rachelle, Tambrea, and Bree eating me, the M&M

Day 12- How you found out about blogger and why you have one

Well, my sister, Stephanie, learned about them in high school a few years ago and I thought that was a way cute idea of how to do some sort of journaling so I jumped on the blog train and got myself one. I was even more in love with blogs when I found that a lot of my friends had them as well and I'm loving having one more every day because it gives me a good opportunity to write and to read other people's and get great ideas for...life. haha Check out my 'other blogs' list. There is some good stuff there, people!

Day 13- A letter to someone

Here is a letter to you bloggers out there:

'B' for Barclay, of course :)

Day 14- A picture of you and your family

My sisters and me with Mrs. Clark, who taught all of us for kindergarten
Erin's kindergarten graduation 2006

ALSO, Today:

-I'm wearing Becca's jeans...shhh!

-I ate peaches n' cream oatmeal for breakfast

-I cleaned my bathroom

-I downloaded some songs to put on our 'wedding mix'

-I went to BOTH classes (accomplishment!)

-I printed some tickets

-I showered BEFORE going to class

-I bought a new candle for my room and now it smells "delishes" (spelled the Erin way haha)

-I'm excited to paint our new furniture!!

That's right, folks, we (Dan and I) now have some furniture for our future place! We are totally excited about it! The Gifford's came over the other night and asked if we would like some furniture and we, of course, said yes! (They are the best ever!) So we have a coffee table and two end tables that we are going to paint black tonight. They are going to look so good when we finish! I will post before and after pictures!

Day 9- something you're proud of in the past few days

Ok, so firstly, Dan and I helped out with a scripture character scavenger hunt for the Willowwood Ward young men/young women on Tuesday night. I was hesitant about doing it at first because we had to dress up and sit in a public place haha ...BUT I thought that helping my mom was probably a good idea... and Dan was all for it so I thought I should be too. haha It actually ended up being way fun and the kids were able to guess who we were after some questioning and a few stories about our characters. Dan was Abinidi and I was Rebekah. AND we got pizza afterward at the church so it was good! :)

Our place was Little Caesar's Pizza. Other people from my family ward were in places like Lin's and the Dollar Store. What a fun activity!

Ok, so Day 9-

I'm proud of my sisters, Becca and Collette. They are so awesome! They had a swim meet yesterday at SUU against CV and 2 other teams. Collette is already doing so awesome and she's just a freshman! She's already close to beating my times from when I was a senior (how sad for me haha) and she's already beating a lot of the upper-grade girls on her team and other teams! Yay! Becca is doing so great! She placed first overall in the 100m backstroke and is a team captain. I love them for working so hard to get where they are today in their sports :)

Days 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

Well, ok...so I decided to speed things up a bit and do a few days at once. So shoot me. haha

PLUS post a recipe that I 'concocted' on my own today for lunch. Be excited!

First things first - the recipe:

"Liz's Better-Than-Ever Homemade Spaghetti"

1 pkg. noodles (I prefer Angel Hair)
water (for boiling 'said' noodles, of course)
2 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/2 c. chopped onions
dash salt
dash pepper
1 can cream of mushroom soup
2 cans tomato sauce
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can corn (optional)
2 1/2 tsp. oregano
1 tsp. garlic powder
3 tsp. parsley
Parmesan cheese

Boil water in a pan and cook noodles. While that is cooking, cook chicken breasts how you prefer and then cut into small pieces. In another pan, combine chopped onions, salt, pepper, cream of mushroom soup, tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, and corn. Stir until cream of mushroom soup is well mixed in. Add oregano, garlic powder, and parsley. Heat on stove. (This may be a good spot to test your sauce. Add more seasoning if you feel it is needed. I don't measure when I make up recipes so this could be off) Stir occasionally, until sauce starts to bubble. Place noodles on a plate, cover in sauce, add chicken pieces and Parmesan cheese, and enjoy! (yield 6-ish)

Day 4- A habit you wish you didn't have

I really wish that I would stop biting my nails. I stopped for awhile but the horrid habit came right back! GRR!

Day 5- A picture of somewhere you've been to

The Provo LDS Temple (So pretty!)

Day 6- Favorite super hero and why

My favorite super hero is batman. For a few reasons:

1. I think he's cool
2. He's attractive
3. His name is Bruce Wayne and that's my dad's name (for real) haha
4. The new movies are the bomb! ...old's are good, too, but I really love the 2 new ones
5. I just like him

**McKel had WAY awesome reasons for liking him...I don't really. haha Honestly though, GO MCKEL! She's the batman genius! Check it!

Day 7- A picture of someone/something that has the biggest impact on you

My sisters :)

Day 8- Short term goals for this month and why
These are for the rest of this week. Since that's when the month ends. And also, you would be SO overwhelmed to hear all the stuff I've got to do in a WHOLE month haha

• Buy all the stuff we need for the FHE ward Halloween party and make sure it runs smoothly tonight
• Get costume for tonight
• Get my homework done daily (this will be a stretch haha)
• Go to work
• Help out with mutual on Tuesday
• Buy pizza as payment for 'the contract' I signed last year (Engagement = Pizza) and get all the girls together
• Hometeachers. 5:30pm. Tuesday
• Visiting teachers. 5pm. Wednesday (coming to me, not me going out. I'm a horrible horrible example of V.T.)
• Make time for Natalie!!
• Get my ring re-sized :)
• Go to choir on Thursday
• Work the Howl on Friday
• Work volleyball on Saturday
• Write talk for Sunday
• Attend Derrick's farewell on Sunday (I can't believe he's mission-old-enough!)
• Decide with Dan how we are going to fit all our wanted guests into the room at the temple...

Day 3- A picture of you and your friends

Anne Marie, Steph, Jess, me, Natalie, Chels, and Tambrea

This is one of MANY friend photos I could put on here but I love this one and I love these people.

NO, we are not Edward Cullen lovers...well, at least I'm not...for sure. haha

BUT, for Natalie's birthday, we just HAD to get her this shirt. It's a little girl's size shirt. Great, huh?

Yeah, I have good times with these girls :)

Day 2- The meaning behind your blog name

Well, my blog name is pretty self explanitory...

and pretty bland, but I feel like it is a good explanation of what I post on my blog.

My posts are about the 'days of my life' and, obviously, with me, there is 'hardly a dull moment'

it seems like there is always something exciting or random going on in my life at one time or another...at least to me it's exciting

In other news, it's awesome cloudy/rainy days like today that I wish I had a cute umbrella to carry around cause, hello, a cute umbrella just makes the rain that much more enjoyable, of course!

Also, I'm feeling very anxious... for stuff, good stuff... to happen :)

Day 1- Recent picture of you and 15 interesting facts about yourself

Yes, I look crazy. Too bad.

1. I wish my hair was naturally darker so I didn't have to dye it

2. I think cupcakes are cute

3. Daniel Kade Johnson is the L.O.M.L. ♥

4. Currently, I'm loving Kate Nash and country music

5. Some days, I feel like quiting school and work and becoming a bum

6. I would love to travel the world

7. My biggest pet peeve is when people drive the wrong way on a one-way street

8. I love all my 'teacher classes' but when I think about actually teaching, I get extremely nervous

9. Korean food, angel hair spinach alfredo, and cheeseburger soup make up my favorite foods

10. I love being LDS

11. I don't handle pain well...at all

12. I couldn't swim at all until I was 11--but now I love swimming and I miss being at the pool all the time

13. I always check out people's outfits on campus to get ideas of what to wear/buy

14. I honestly canNOT understand why people would ever start smoking

15. I've lived in the same house for almost 18 years

30 Days

I've seen this on so many people's blogs so I thought, "Well, why not?" Ha So here I am, posting it on my blog and, yeah, I'm going to do it, too! (Warning: Other random stuff may get thrown in there as well)

day 1- recent picture of you and 15 interesting facts about yourself
day 2- the meaning behind your blog name
day 3- a picture of you and your friends
day 4- a habit that you wish you didn’t have
day 5- a picture of somewhere you've been to
day 6- favorite super hero and why
day 7- a picture of someone/something that has the biggest impact on you
day 8- short term goals for this month and why
day 9- something you're proud of in the past few days
day 10- songs you listen to when you are happy, sad, bored, hyped, mad
day 11- another picture of you and your friends
day 12- how you found out about blogger and why you have one
day 13- a letter to someone
day 14- a picture of you and your family
day 15- put your ipod on shuffle: first 10 songs that play
day 16- another picture of yourself
day 17- someone you would want to switch lives with for one day and why
day 18- plans/dreams/goals you have
day 19- nicknames you have and why you have them
day 20- someone you love.
day 21- a picture of something that makes you happy
day 22- what makes you different from everyone else
day 23- something you crave for a lot
day 24- your last five facebook status'
day 25- what I would find in your bag
day 26- what do you think about your friends
day 27- why are you doing this 30 day challenge
day 28- a picture of you from last year and now, how have you changed since then?
day 29- in this past month, what have you learned
day 30- you favorite song